The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) and members of GamePolitics will be taking part in this year's Extra Life event on November 2. Since 2008, tens of thousands of gamers have joined together to raise money for local kids' hospitals in a celebration of gaming culture and gamers doing good works through charity. In case you didn't know, Extra Life lets players raise funds from friends and family who sponsor them to play games - from console and PC games to tabletop RPGs or whatever activity they want to do. Gamers have raised more than $4 million dollars for Children's Hospitals since 2008 through Extra Life.

This year the ECA's Extra Life Team - headed up by team captain Patrick Burns - aims to raise $5,000 for Extra Life, to go to the Maria Fareri Childrens Hospital in Valhalla, New York. Members of the ECA Extra Life Team will set up a makeshift HQ at the Weston Volunteer Fire Department station 2 meeting hall (in Weston Connecticut) on November 1. They'll begin playing at 11 pm on that date and continue for 25 hours of non-stop gaming.

Other ECA chapters are expected to join in on the effort, and a few members of the GamePolitics staff will even take part to help raise money for a worthy cause.

We hope that you'll visit our Extra Life team page and make a pledge to help us hit our $5,000 goal. You can also join our team right here. We'd love to have you! We'll have more details on the particulars at a later date, but for now we need your support!